An electric toothbrush may incorporate a brush section that couples to a handle section. A drive shaft may extend from the handle section with the drive shaft being coupled to an electric drive disposed within an interior of the handle section. The electric drive may impart a rotary, oscillating or combined rotary oscillating motion to the drive shaft so that the drive shaft is movable in a rotary or oscillating manner. The brush section can couple and secure to the handle section with the drive shaft coupling to a coupling element of the brush section, e.g., a shaft or drive pin. The motion of the drive shaft can be imparted upon the coupling element to provide a desired cleaning action to a brush head portion of the brush section.
A common arrangement for a brush section includes a substantially circular brush head portion. The brush head is caused, by action of the electric drive, to have a rotary or rotary-oscillating motion, i.e., cleaning motion during cleaning use. The circular brush head design combined with the cleaning motion is very effective for cleaning teeth and is optimal when a tooth-by-tooth cleaning pattern is used. Still, many consumers enjoy taking a proactive role in their oral hygiene activity. At times, the user will use the electric toothbrush with a manual brushing action, e.g., using vertical or circular strokes. For the electric toothbrush having a circular brush head design and employing a rotary or rotary-oscillating cleaning motion, using this electric toothbrush with a manual brushing action can be counter productive and may reduce the effectiveness of the brush head design and cleaning action. Ironically, the electric toothbrush is rendered less effective while the consumer erroneously believes the added action makes for a more effective and/or expedited cleaning process. Furthermore, years of training and conditioning have taught the consumer to use a circular or vertical cleaning motion, and habits may be difficult to change.